The view from above: a drone's perspective of the world

Suitable for 14-19-year olds (secondary and high schools, and college), this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom and at home.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 media studies and social science.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks:
Gatsby Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information
Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• This teaching resource explains the work of Dr Elisa Serafinelli and Dr Lauren Alex O’Hagan, researchers at the University of Sheffield, UK. They are investigating public perceptions of drone photography and how drones can influence our visual culture.

• This resource also contains interviews with Elisa and Lauren. If your students have questions for Elisa and Lauren, they can send them to them online. All they need to do is to go to the article online (see the Futurum link below), scroll down to the end and type in the question(s). Elisa and Lauren will reply!

• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on Elisa and Lauren’ research and challenges them to examine drone photos and explore how the ‘view from above’ changes their perception of the locations captured.

This resource was first published on Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

If you like these free resources – or have suggestions for improvements –, please let us know and leave us some feedback. Thank you!